The incident took place
on Saturday, as reporters from WUSA9 asked residents in a local
neighborhood how they felt about living in an area labeled
“sketchy” by a new app that went unnamed during the report. While
residents told reporter Mola Lenghi that the neighborhood was not
as unsafe as the app suggested, the news crew filming the
interviews had their cargo lifted from their vehicle.

“We were doing a story on an app that describes ‘sketchy’
neighborhoods,” Lenghi said during an on-air report. “It led us to the Petworth
neighborhood of Northwest, and I’m not going to call it a
‘sketchy’ neighborhood, but as folks were telling us that it was
a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around
there – as that was being told to us, our van was being
robbed.”

“This is what happened: We got back to the news van and
noticed that the lock was popped out. Got in there, and noticed
that all of our stuff was gone. I had a backpack full of
electronics.”

In addition to Lenghi’s items, two backpacks filled with a
laptop, photo gear, and small electronics were stolen from the
crew’s cameraman. A female crew member had her purse, wallet, and
cracked iPhone taken.

The crew was ultimately able to recover some of its gear with a
different app: 'Find My iPhone.' They were able to track down the
employee’s iPhone, which was thrown in a dumpster – presumably
because it was cracked – along with other items the robbers
decided weren’t worth the trouble. Many items were retrieved, but
“many, many, many thousands of dollars” worth of equipment was
not found.

“We were doing a story on one app, and a different app ended
up saving us,” Lenghi said, noting that a police report was
filed in the wake of the incident.

Although the app that was the subject of the original story was
never mentioned, it’s possible the reporters were referring to
'SketchFactor.' The app recently made headlines across the
internet for offering a user-supported rating system that would
combine scores to rate a neighborhood’s “sketchiness” – something
that was defined by the app’s white creators as "an event
that's uncomfortable and out of the ordinary."

The app quickly came under fire from various corners for letting
white people unfairly label minority neighborhoods as dangerous
places to avoid.

"Is there any way to keep white people from using computers,
before this whole planet is ruined?"asked Sam Biddle of ValleyWag after posting
about the app.

Despite the negative attention, SketchFactor’s creators defended their software by saying it allows
people to filter results based on numerous variables, such as
complaints about crime, racial profiling, catcalling, and more.